Information for the Westdale Secondary School Rowing Community

THE HOME STRETCH!

We’re in the home stretch, everybody! Hard to believe that the season will be over in 11 days! Lots to do before that, starting with the Hamilton City Championships/christening of boats this Saturday. Bring your friends and family to watch you race in the slip at Bayfront Park! I believe Greg is aiming to have racing wrapped up by noon, followed by a BBQ (which is already paid for by your spring fees for the rowers), followed by the boat christening afterwards. Looks like it will be a cracker of a day, too!

Following Cities, we are off Sunday, then normal practice Monday and Tuesday. The coaches are still debating on whether to load the trailer Wednesday or Thursday, so I will give details on that. We will have a small group of you in St. Catharines on Thursday to rig and possibly row, but it won’t be for long, especially if it’s hot. The CSSRA Regatta starts on Friday morning.

Taking a first look at entries, it looks like we already have one final–the Sr Women 59kg 4x looks to be a straight final on Sunday–I can’t remember the last time there was a straight final at this regatta! We do have some events that will require heats to semis to finals on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Numerous events are heats to finals Saturday and Sunday. And as mentioned, the one straight final Sunday. All this will be on the draw, which is promised by Sunday by the committee. If you are not racing on Friday, we may still ask you to come to St. Catharines late that day for a practice row on the course, especially if you haven’t rowed in a couple of days. For those racing pre-noon on all days, as well as those who need to weigh in anyway, we will ask you to come to the course for a morning paddle. These morning rows are FANTASTIC for calming the nerves and for doing a few practice race starts. These will be communicated to you next week when the draw comes out.

The end is near, folks! It has been one quick season—I CLEARLY remember the first meeting in the library before winter training started–that was late October. All the eager faces of both novice parents and novice rowers wondering how all this could possibly happen. Now we’re here with just a few short days left and it’s amazing how far you’ve all come. Make it the BEST 11 days of the season!!!